Monday, June 16, 2014

The
other evening, I took my friend Kath for a walk to explore her new home in
Weymouth. We set off from the Co-op car park along Littlemoor Road, enjoying
the peace of the cycle track away from the cars. On reaching Charlbury Food andWine Stores, we crossed the road and turned right towards the beach. A green footpath
sign on the left took us off the main road through houses and right onto a grassy
path leading up to Jordan Hill.

It was a beautiful evening with views of
Weymouth Bay as we reached the remains of Jordan Roman villa and paused to take it
all in, with George III riding away on his white horse on the hills above
Sutton Poyntz.

John
Constable produced two famous paintings of the bay, one viewed from the Riviera Hotel looking along the beach to Overcombe Corner, showing the little River
Jordan spilling out at Bowleaze. In 1816, while honeymooning at Osmington
vicarage, he found time to sit atop the hills around Sutton Poyntz, painting
the view. On
Jordan Hill to the east of town are remains of a Romano-Celtic temple. The site
was excavated in the 19th century and again in 1931, when archaeologists found a
well-like pit beneath one corner of the sanctuary wall approx. 13 ft deep.
At the bottom was a stone cist containing two urns, a sword and spear head.
Pits like this were used for ritual offerings by the Celts. More than 80
skeletons were found in a cemetery north of here, buried with grave goods
(bowls, brooches and spoons) which are now on display in Dorset County Museum.

Out
onto Bowleaze Coveway and right down the hill, past the swanky new houses and favourite
café, the Lookout. Lodmoor wetlands are spread out below.

In
the 12th century the name was recorded as Lotmoor
and in 1284 as Loddemore, which
translates appropriately as ‘swampy ground’, lut or lot being Old
English for mud. For some time it appeared difficult to decide what to do with
Lodmoor and its seemingly useless land, but what a blessing it was that Billy
Butlin was eventually denied the opportunity to build a holiday camp there, for
Lodmoor is now fully appreciated as a valuable and popular nature reserve and
RSPB site. It is open at all times, tracks offering easy access along firm,
flat and wide paths, suitable for cyclists, pushchairs and invalid carriages.
There are occasional organised wildlife walks for both local visitors and
dedicated ornithologists from this country and abroad.

At
Joy’s Newsagents we turned back up the road towards Charlbury and nipped off down
Heron Close into Lodmoor. Winding our way right, through the reserve, we came
out on Southdown Avenue and turned left. Some black cats were asserting their
territory. Anomalous big cats have been seen in the area.

Littlemoor, Broadwey – 30 January 2007 Shirley
Farrar was walking in the woods at Littlemoor at about 2.30pm when she
encountered a 'pure black big cat' only 30 ft away, and watched it for 20 seconds.
She said: 'It was as big as my Doberman, I would say roughly 3 ft tall,
including the tail about 5 or 6 ft long. The tail was long and carried
low. I was walking my two dogs through woods when they flushed it out and gave
chase. The dogs were going crazy and were very unsettled and edgy when they
came back. I have also over the last 4 weeks found three deer carcasses
completely stripped of all flesh; the last kill was only a day after the
sighting.'

The
Avenue peters out into a footpath that disappears into the reserve.

A
rough footpath leads into Lodmoor, and where it turns sharp left, on the right
can be seen a grassy hill on which there is a line of trees. This is Horse
Lynch Plantation. Here in December 2001 a character named ‘Swampy’ (Daniel
Hooper, a well-known national environmental activist) together with companions
camped out, dedicated in their protest against the destruction of beautiful
countryside by the proposed relief road planned to ease the increasing traffic
congestion along the Dorchester Road. For a few weeks they were the focal point
for television and newspaper headlines until eventually the proposal was
dismissed and all went quiet. Nevertheless, several years later, after Weymouth
was selected to host the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition, the by-pass was
finally agreed with promises that ‘the beautiful countryside’ through which it
had intruded would be sympathetically landscaped with trees and shrubs
appropriate to the terrain.

[Extract and photo from Preston, Bowleaze and Overcombe by D. Joan Jones]

Through the wood, you pop out above
Lorton Meadows, a lovely wild area looked after by the Dorset Wildlife Trust.
Again, big cats have been sighted here. Keeping to the high ground we followed
the path and finished by coming out at a playground on Louviers Road. It was a
short hop back down to the Co-op from there, with Daniel’s Fish and ChipShop handy.

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